ISTANBUL (Sputnik) — This year’s festival, the main theme of which is "Lives of Others", is devoted to people whose lives are different from what is generally considered the norm by virtue of different reasons and circumstances.
Its guests and participants include Stanley Greene (United States), a prominent war photojournalist; Peter Mensink (Netherlands), co-founder and publisher of GUP Magazine, a major publication on photography; and Andrea Belluso (Italy), a leading photographer of the world’s fashion industry known in the international photography community as "the Light Shaper".
The Rossiya Segodnya-organized contest bears the name of Andrei Stenin, the agency’s photojournalist who died tragically in Ukraine while on editorial assignment in August 2014. The exposition of the Stenin Contest is open for visitors from October 12 to November 8.
Different in style and technique, these photos document urgent social issues: the life and problems of disabled people, life in prison, military conflicts and human tragedy.
The photo exposition is on display at the former Ortakoy Orphanage (Istanbul), the exclusive indoor venue of FotoInstanbul that hosts most of its exhibitions and installations.
Attila Durak, a co-founder and curator of FotoIstanbul-2015, said:
"Photo competitions offer photographers an opportunity to gauge the public reaction to their work and get an understanding about how they fit into the talented photography community. Competitions are a means of building up your self-confidence, they give photographers a chance to make a statement about important public and social issues through their art. The Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest was such an opportunity. The works submitted by the contest winners are interesting, unusual and done to global photojournalism standards. We are happy to see them at the FotoIstanbul 2015 contest and to introduce our audiences to new names in global photojournalism".
"It is very important for the prize winners of the Stenin Contest to have their photos shown at exhibitions in Russia and abroad. This is a unique opportunity for them to express themselves in their pictures and to attract the attention and appreciation of a global audience. Their participation in FotoInstanbul-2015, which shows the best and most meaningful pieces of global photojournalism, speaks to the highest quality of their photos," said Head of Rossiya Segodnya's Photo Information Directorate Alexander Shtol.
The Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest
Rossiya Segodnya established the Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest on December 22, 2014, to commemorate Andrei Stenin, its photojournalist who died in the line of duty in southeastern Ukraine on August 6, 2014. The contest is aimed at promoting photography, raising awareness about the purpose and challenges of photojournalism, and supporting young photographers.
About 5,000 entries from 54 countries, including Russia, Europe, North and South America, Africa, the Middle East, India and Southeast Asia, were contributed for the first contest. The jury of leading Russian and foreign photo and art figures was headed by Jason Eskenazi, a renowned US photographer and Guggenheim Fellowship laureate. Those who selected the winners, included internationally renowned masters, among them Natalya Udartseva (Russia), the founder and director of the Visual Arts School; Andrei Polikanov (Russia), Visual Director of Takie Dela/So It Goes online media, Nuzhna Pomosch (Help Needed) Charity Foundation; Attila Durak (Turkey), co-founder and curator of the FotoIstanbul festival; Grigory Dukor (Russia), chief photographer, CIS, Reuters Limited Moscow Representative, and others.
The 2015 contest was supported by the Xinhua News Agency, the Royal Photographic Society, the Indonesian Press Photo Agency Antara Foto, RT, RBTH (Russia Beyond the Headlines), the Moscow International Centre for Journalism (MICJ), Tutto Digitale Magazine, the Academy of Photography, Vesti.ru online newspaper, Foto&Video magazine, Geophoto.ru agency jourdom.ru portal, Fototehnika portal, the Moscow Union of Journalists, photo-study.ru photography education web site, Russian Photo portal, School of Visual Arts, YOJO.ru web platform for young journalists and Foto.ru club, International festival of photography “Photoparade in Uglich”.
